Are Trackbacks Dead?
Via Chetan Ckunte´ s blog and BlogaholicsI came upon this thread, apparently started by Tom Coates of plasticbag.org:
Ongoing is a discussion whether the trackback function in blogs is “dead”, meaning no longer usable because of trackback-spamming.
I like Chetan´s point of view: I, too, think that the trackback function is indispensable for weaving the blogosphere - and use it a lot. With blog-software like WordPress trackback spamming - hopefully - is not a major problem; trackbacks like comments can be set to “moderate”, just as Chetan explains, and I have no inhibition to use the moderating function and delete a trackback that is clearly spam.
It is true that even with the blogs I regularly visit I very often find the trackback function non-existent or disabled; I really find that deplorable; in my view trackbacking is one major part of the fun in blogging. On reading other blogs usually I find trackbacks at least as interesting as on-site comments, as they provide hyperlinks to move on with.
Dear fellow bloggers: try and find solution for your trackback functions to be left enabled (or to be reenabled) - blogs should have contact with each other, really.
For those interested in the topic you might also want to read: http://txfx.net/2005/04/29/is-trackback-dead/.
trackback, spam, pingback, referral, blogosphere
this may sound stupid. but up to now, I still can’t grip the idea of trackbacks. so what is it really anyway?
Hi Milktea,
not a stupid question at all.
As for the idea it is quite simple, in my view: When I comment on or refer to an article in your weblog, I would like to let you know about my comment. Trackback lets me do just that. If your blog supports it, via a certain protocol my comment on my blog appears (at least partly) as a link and comment in your blog. So I consider trackback as a kind of “remote comment”.
Where the whole thing becomes somewhat murky to me, as well, is, when we try to differentiate between “pingback” and “trackback”. Here is what I think (may be partly or completely wrong): it is a matter of protocol: both pingback and trackback notify another weblog that I have comented on it or referred to it (what the notified weblog makes out of this information is up to it) . The difference lies in technicalities - pingback uses XML-RPC, trackback uses HTTP-POST. Trackback seems to be more remote-comment-like in its result on the remote weblog.
Wordpress - if I choose so - does both: it pingbacks to all links used in an entry on my blog (though I have no idea what really happens to a pingback to an image, e.g.) and I can manually include trackbacks to sites where I want a remote comment to appear (IF and HOW it appears is up to the remote weblog - weblogs that accept trackbacks usually say so in each entry and in most cases offer special URIs for each entry to send the trackback http-post-command to).
What is it good for, really: Both instruments are about community-building and weaving the web - they are not indispensable, but I find them interesting and useful in that respect.
Having said all this I would be awfully happy for someone more in the know than me to make a comment on what I wrote here, perhaps further clarifiying the difference between pingback and trackback, correcting what I understood worng and adding what is missing
Kind regards
Marchal
very helpful indeed.
I asked Chetan to add a comment of his. Perhaps he will make things even clearer.
Kind regards
Marchal
He just emailed me that he replied here.
Thanks Chetan